One would think
that the hype about Digital Bangladesh is limited to purer forms of IT such as
software development by looking at majority of the media coverage around the
topic. Well, one would be wrong! The rise of startups in other sectors, albeit
slowly, is noticeable and a remarkable number of them are in the Digital/e-Health
vertical.
Just like many
other countries in the SEA region, the logistical challenges of staying healthy
and preventing diseases are felt by people of all walks of life. Digital
Health/e-Health startups are all about solving those problems with the help of
information technology. In doing so however, they themselves have been facing a
similar, if not greater challenge of integrating IT into the lives of people
who are largely disconnected from that apart from social media usage. Enter pioneers
Praava, Telenor Health (Tonic), CMED, Maya, Olwel that have brought some sort of
solutions to the table.
Praava has already
proven its services as tremendously helpful for the users by offering membership
plans, diagnostics and family health services from trained professionals. The
predictably promising future it has however should be attributed to the great
leadership of its founder Sylvana Quadir Sinha and her cohorts. We have seen it
time and again how important it is to have good leadership to survive in the
startup ecosystem in Bangladesh.
As the name
suggests, Telenor Health (Tonic) is backed by Telenor which is a good indicator
of its current worth and future possibilities. Unlike other sectors in the
startup scenario, digital health or e-Health isn’t exactly a turnkey business opportunity
and that means having an established investor helps with both initial
sustenance and room for growth without constant profitability concerns. Their
partnerships with existing healthcare providers are strong indications of their
quality and promises.
CMED works with
a rather unique architecture, their sensor or device accompanies an app to provide
health monitoring service. Patients with ongoing medical conditions that
require keeping tabs of their health, such as diabetics and stroke patients are
their key demographic.
Maya is working
in yet another underdeveloped sector, anonymous consultancy. Their reward? Apart
from the funding from BRAC, getting accepted as the first Bangladeshi startup in
Google’s Launchpad program and securing more funding shortly afterwards, Maya
is a recognized platform for digital wellbeing assistance.
Olwel has been
successfully bridging the information gap between a patient and the right
doctor, a need that has been felt my most but not really fulfilled until it
came along. The team they began with is worthy of being in multiple who’s who
lists which is portrayed by their participation in a sector that’s been mostly
untouched by professionals.
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